Mobile Communications Device User Interface

ABSTRACT

A mobile communications device user interface is described. In an implementation, a method is implemented by a computing device that includes displaying content in conjunction with a first level of a hierarchical menu in a user interface on a display device of the computing device. Responsive to receipt of an input to navigate to a second level of the hierarchical menu that is a sublevel of the first level, the second level in displayed conjunction with the content on the display device, the content having a reduced display richness when displayed in conjunction with the second level than when displayed in conjunction with the first level.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

moon This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. Section 119(e) toU.S. Provisional Patent Applications Nos. 61/107,945, 61/107,935, and61/107,921, each of which was filed on Oct. 23, 2008, the entiredisclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in theirentirety.

BACKGROUND

Mobile communication devices (e.g., wireless phones) have become anintegral part of everyday life. However, the form factor employed byconventional mobile communications devices is typically limited topromote mobility of the device.

For example, the mobile communications device may have a relativelylimited amount of display area when compared to a conventional desktopcomputer, e.g., a PC. Therefore, conventional techniques used tointeract with a desktop computer may be inefficient when employed by amobile communications device. For example, traditional menus may consumea significant amount of display area of the display device therebylimiting the amount of display area that is available for content.

SUMMARY

A mobile communications device user interface is described. In animplementation, a method is implemented by a computing device thatincludes displaying content in conjunction with a first level of ahierarchical menu in a user interface on a display device of thecomputing device. Responsive to receipt of an input to navigate to asecond level of the hierarchical menu that is a sublevel of the firstlevel, the second level in displayed conjunction with the content on thedisplay device, the content having a reduced display richness whendisplayed in conjunction with the second level than when displayed inconjunction with the first level.

In an implementation, one or more computer-readable storage mediainclude instructions that are executable by a mobile communicationsdevice to cause output of a user interface on a touchscreen of themobile communications device. The user interface has a hierarchicalstructure in which a root level of the hierarchical structure includes afirst menu item that is selectable via the touchscreen to initiate aprimary action and a second menu item that is selectable to causedisplay of a sublevel of the hierarchical structure that includes aplurality of menu items. One or more of the plurality of menu items areselectable to initiate a respective action and at least one of theplurality of menu items is selectable to cause display of anothersublevel of the hierarchical structure.

In an implementation, a mobile communications device includes atouchscreen, a processor, and memory configured to maintain an operatingsystem. The operating system is executable on the processor to display auser interface on the touchscreen that is scrollable via a gesturereceived via the touchscreen. The user interface is configured fordisplay on the touchscreen to include one or more menu items when theuser interface is not scrolled and configured to not display at least aportion of the one or more menu items when the user interface isscrolled.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subjectmatter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanyingfigures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference numberidentifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. Theuse of the same reference numbers in different instances in thedescription and the figures may indicate similar or identical items.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example implementation of a mobilecommunications device in accordance with one or more embodiments ofdevices, features, and systems for mobile communications.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a mobile communications device of FIG. 1 inan example implementation that shows an animation that is output inresponse to navigation to a submenu.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of the mobile communications device of FIG. 1in an example implementation that shows animation and navigation to anadditional submenu of the hierarchical menu shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of the mobile communications device of FIG. 1in an example implementation that shows content having reduced displayrichness when displayed in conjunction with successively lower levels ofa hierarchical menu.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of the mobile communications device of FIG. 1in an example implementation in which menu items are configured tofollow inertia of a scrolling user interface.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which content has different amount of display richnesswhen displayed with different levels of a hierarchical menu.

FIG. 7 illustrates various components of an example device that can beimplemented in various embodiments as any type of a mobile device toimplement embodiments of devices, features, and systems for mobilecommunications.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

Mobile communications devices typically have a small form factor to aidemobility of the mobile communications device. For example, the mobilecommunications device (e.g., a mobile phone) may be configured with arelatively minimal amount of display area and limited input devices(e.g., a keypad) so that the device may be easily transported.Consequently, traditional techniques used to interact with aconventional computer (e.g., a desktop PC) may be frustrating when usedin conjunction with a mobile communications device.

For instance, use of a conventional menu and tool bar may consume asignificant amount of display area of a display device, even when notbeing used. Consequently, conventional menus may limit the amount ofdisplay area that is available to display content, such as images,contact information, documents, and so on.

In an implementation, a user interface is described that limits theamount of “chrome” this is displayed when the menu is not in use. Forexample, the menu may be configured to include a root level having amenu item that is selectable to initiate a primary action and anothermenu item that is selectable to navigate “down” through the hierarchy toadditional actions. In this way, the user interface may include a menuthat includes a primary action that is likely to be initiated by a user(e.g., output based on the type of content that is displayed inconjunction with the menu) without forcing the user to navigate to asubmenu yet still provide the user with an option to navigate throughthe hierarchy to access additional actions. Further discussion ofhierarchical navigation may be found in relation to FIGS. 2 and 3.

In another implementation, a user interface is described that configuresunderlying content to provide an indication of a level at which a userhas currently navigated in a hierarchical structure. Continuing with theprevious example, the user may navigate through successive levels of thehierarchy to locate a desired action. During this navigation, thecontent that is displayed in conjunction with the menu may be displayedin succession as having a decreased display richness, e.g., darker, lesscolor, less contrast, and so on. Thus, the content may be used toreflect a relative level of the hierarchy and thus limit the amount ofchrome that was traditionally utilized to indicate a current locationwithin the hierarchy. Further discussion of display richness andhierarchical levels may be found in relation to FIGS. 4 and 6.

In a further implementation, a user interface is described that isconfigured to temporarily hide at least a portion of a user interfacewhen scrolling. For example, the user interface may be configured todisplay a menu as an overlay over a display of content. When the contentis scrolled, the menu may be output as part of an animation to make itappear that the menu follows inertia of the scrolling content, e.g.,direction and speed, to hide at least a portion of the menu. When thescrolling stops, the animation may cause the menu to reappear, e.g., asthe scrolling is slowed. Further discussion of scrolling may be found inrelation to FIG. 5.

In the following discussion, a variety of example implementations of amobile communications device (e.g., a wireless phone) are described.Additionally, a variety of different functionality that may be employedby the mobile communications device is described for each example, whichmay be implemented in that example as well as in other describedexamples. Accordingly, example implementations are illustrated of a fewof a variety of contemplated implementations. Further, although a mobilecommunications device having one or more modules that are configured toprovide telephonic functionality are described, a variety of othermobile devices are also contemplated, such as personal digitalassistants, mobile music players, dedicated messaging devices, portablegame devices, netbooks, and so on.

Example Implementations

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example implementation 100 of a mobilecommunications device 102 in accordance with one or more embodiments ofdevices, features, and systems for mobile communications. The mobilecommunications device 102 is operable to assume a plurality ofconfigurations, examples of which include a configuration as illustratedin FIG. 1 in which the mobile communications device 102 is “open” and aconfiguration in which the mobile communications device 102 is “closed”as illustrated in FIGS. 2-5.

The mobile communications device 102 is further illustrated as includinga first housing 104 and a second housing 106 that are connected via aslide 108 such that the first and second housings 104, 106 may move(e.g., slide) in relation to one another. Although sliding is described,it should be readily apparent that a variety of other movementtechniques are also contemplated, e.g., a pivot, a hinge and so on.

The first housing 104 includes a display device 110 that may be used tooutput a variety of content, such as a caller identification (ID),contacts, images (e.g., photos) as illustrated, email, multimediamessages, Internet browsing, game play, music, video, and so on. In animplementation, the display device 110 is configured to function as aninput device by incorporating touchscreen functionality, e.g., throughcapacitive, surface acoustic wave, resistive, optical, strain gauge,dispersive signals, acoustic pulse, and other touchscreen functionality.The touchscreen functionality (as well as other functionality such astrack pads) may be used to detect gestures, further discussion of whichmay be found in relation to FIG. 5.

The second housing 106 is illustrated as including a keyboard 112 thatmay also be used to provide inputs to the mobile communications device102. Although the keyboard 112 is illustrated as a QWERTY keyboard, avariety of other examples are also contemplated, such as a keyboard thatfollows a traditional telephone keypad layout (e.g., a twelve keynumeric pad found on basic telephones), keyboards configured for otherlanguages (e.g., Cyrillic), and so on.

In the “open” configuration as illustrated in the example implementation100 of FIG. 1, the first housing 104 is moved (e.g., slid) “away” fromthe second housing 106 using the slide 108. Other implementations arealso contemplated, such as a “clamshell” configuration, “brick”configuration, and so on.

The form factor employed by the mobile communications device 102 may besuitable to support a wide variety of features. For example, thekeyboard 112 is illustrated as supporting a QWERTY configuration. Thisform factor may be convenient to a user to utilize the previouslydescribed functionality of the mobile communications device 102, such asto compose texts, play games, check email, “surf” the Internet, providestatus messages for a social network, and so on.

The mobile communications device 102 is also illustrated as including acommunication module 114. The communication module 114 is representativeof functionality of the mobile communications device 102 to communicatevia a network 116. For example, the communication module 114 may includetelephone functionality to make and receive telephone calls. Thecommunication module 114 may also include a variety of otherfunctionality, such as to capture content, form short message service(SMS) text messages, multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages,emails, status updates to be communicated to a social network service,and so on. A user, for instance, may input a status update forcommunication via the network 116 to the social network service. Thesocial network service may then publish the status update to “friends”of the user, e.g., for receipt by the friends via a computer, respectivemobile communications devices, and so on. A variety of other examplesare also contemplated, such as blogging, instant messaging, and so on.

The mobile communications device 102 is also illustrated as including auser interface module 118. The user interface module 118 isrepresentative of functionality of the mobile communications device 102to generate, manage, and/or output a user interface 120 for display onthe display device 110. A variety of different techniques may beemployed to generate the user interface.

For example, the user interface module 118 may configure the userinterface 120 to output a root level of a hierarchical menu. In theillustrated example, output of the root level includes a first menu item122 that is selectable to initiate a primary action “send.” A secondmenu item 124 is also included that is selectable to navigate to asubmenu of the hierarchy, which is illustrated as “more” in the figure.In this way, the output of the root level has limited intrusion on anamount of display area of the display device 110 that is available tooutput underlying content 126 yet still provides at least a singleaction that is selectable without navigating through the hierarchy.Additional menu items may then be displayed by navigating through thehierarchy, further discussion of which may be found in relation to thefollowing figure.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a system 200 showing the mobilecommunications device 102 of FIG. 1 in an example implementation thatshows an animation that is output in response to navigation to asubmenu. Three different stages of the mobile communications device 102are illustrated in FIG. 1 as a first stage 202, a second stage 204, anda third stage 206.

In the first stage 202, the display device 110 is illustrated asdisplaying the user interface 120 to include a root level of ahierarchical menu having the first and second menu items 122, 1224 aspreviously described. In this example, the menu is displayed as anoverlay “over” the content 126, which is an image as previouslydescribed. For example, the image may be captured using an image capturedevice of the mobile communications device 102, an image obtained viathe network 116, and so on.

As previously described, the first menu item 122 of the root level ofthe hierarchical menu is selectable to initiate an action. This actionmay be selected by the user interface module 118 from a variety ofdifferent actions, such as based on the underlying content 126 that iscurrently being displayed in the user interface 120, applications thatare currently “running” on the mobile communications device 102, and soon. Thus, the user interface 120 may be configured to enable selectionof an action that is likely to be of interest to a user without forcingthe user to first navigate “through” a hierarchy. Less likely actionsmay then be positioned accordingly at successive levels of thehierarchical menu.

In the first stage, a user's finger 208 is illustrated as selecting thesecond menu item 124 “more.” This selection is received usingtouchscreen functionality of the display device 110. In this example,selection of the menu item 124 initiates output of an animation asfurther illustrated in the second stage 204 of the mobile communicationsdevice 102.

In the second stage 204, menu items that are included in a submenu ofthe hierarchy are animated to expand outwards in a radial manner fromthe point of selection on the display device, e.g., the menu item 124“more” of the first stage 202. In the illustrated example, text is notincluded on the menu items in the sublevel during the expansion,although it should be readily apparent that in alternate embodimentstext may be included on the menu items.

Additionally, the menu items themselves may also be animated to expandin size from the initiating menu item. For example, the menu items mayexpand outwards from the initiating menu item (e.g., the second menuitem 124) and expand in size until reaching a final placement and sizeas shown in the third stage 206. Text in the menu items may also expandwith the menu items in an embodiment.

The menu items in the third stage 206 correspond to a sublevel of thehierarchical structure of the root level shown in the first stage 202.In an implementation, the menu items that are selectable to initiate anaction involving the content 126 that are included in the sublevel areless likely to be of interest to a user that a primary action thatcorresponds to the first menu item 122 in the root level. Further, thesecond menu item 124 “more” has been changed to a sublevel menu item 210“back” to cause navigate back “up” through the hierarchy to the rootlevel. In this way, a user may use a single portion of the userinterface 120 to navigate back and forth between levels of thehierarchy. One or more menu items in the sublevel are also selectable tocause output of an additional level in the hierarchy and thus thehierarchy may mimic a tree structure having a variety of differentbranches and levels, further discussion of which may be found inrelation to the following figure.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of the mobile communications device of FIG. 1in an example implementation of a system 300 that shows animation andnavigation to an additional submenu of the hierarchical menu shown inFIG. 2. Like FIG. 2, the current figure includes first, second, andthird stages 302, 304, 306 of an animation that is output in response tonavigation through a hierarchical menu.

In the first stage 302, the user's finger 208 is illustrated asselecting a menu item 308 “edit” that is to be applied to the underlyingcontent 126. In response, menu items to be included in another submenuare animated as expanding outwardly and growing in size as illustratedin the second stage 304. Completion of the animation is illustrated inthe third stage 306 in which the other sublevel (i.e., the third levelof the hierarchical menu) is displayed as having menu items “crop,”“tag,” and “make profile.” As before, the menu item 308 has changed to a“back” menu item 310 to permit navigation back through the hierarchy.

Thus, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a menu technique is described that maybe utilized by a touchscreen user interface. At the root level 202, thistechnique reduces available actions in a specific context to only twomenu options: a primary and a secondary option. The primary action isthe most prominent menu item (e.g., the first menu item 122) and may beselected to be the “most important” action in any given context, e.g.,most likely to be used.

When selected, the second menu item 124 causes a cascade of the nextlevel of actions to expand outwards radially from the touch point. Thishelps to make the sub-menu actions visible even while the user's finger208 occludes the display device 110, which is an ergonomic considerationfor touch interfaces. Additionally, the placement and specific design ofthe menu techniques does not involve permanent menu bars on the screen,again leaving more room for display of content 126 on the display device110. Thus, as described in this example a user may navigate throughvarious levels of a hierarchy to locate and utilize desired actions. Avariety of different techniques may be employed to describe “where” inthe hierarchy the user is currently located, i.e., what level and/orbranch is currently being displayed, an example of which may be found inrelation to the following figure.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of the mobile communications device 102 ofFIG. 1 in an example implementation 400 that shows content havingreduced display richness when displayed in conjunction with successivelylower levels of a hierarchical menu. In this example, first, second, andthird stages 402, 404, 406 are illustrated that correspond to successivelevels of a hierarchy. The first stage 402 corresponds to the root levelas previously described in relation to the first stage 202 of FIG. 2 andthe second stage 404 corresponds to the sublevel as previously describedin relation to the third stage 206 of FIG. 2. The third stage 406corresponds to the third stage 306 of FIG. 3.

In each of the successive stages, display of the underlying content 126is changed to indicate a respective level in the hierarchy that iscurrently being displayed. For example, the display richness of theunderlying content may be reduced as a user navigates “down” through thehierarchical levels. The display richness may be altered in a variety ofways, such as through color saturation, “darkening,” desaturation,contrast, brightness, and any other display quality without departingfrom the spirit and scope thereof

In the illustrated example, the display of the content 126 is darkenedsuccessively in the second and third stages 404, 406. Therefore, thedisplay of the content 126 in the second stage 404 is darker than thefirst stage 402 and the display of the content 126 in the third stage406 is darker than the second stage 404. In this way, the display of thecontent 126 gives an indication of a relative level of the hierarchythat is currently being displayed without adding “chrome,” e.g.,additional description showing a file path in the user interface 120.Although darkening has been described, it should be readily apparentthat a wide variety of techniques may be used to modify a display ofcontent to indicate a relative level in a hierarchical menu that isconcurrently displayed with the menu.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of the mobile communications device of FIG. 1in an example implementation 500 in which menu items are configured tofollow inertia of a scrolling user interface. The illustration 500includes first, second, and third stages 502, 504, 506. In the firststage 502, a gesture is input using the user's finger 208 to cause theuser interface 120 to scroll upward. Before input of the gesture, thefirst and second menu items 122, 124 are shown in their entirety.

In response to this gesture, the user interface 120 is scrolled in thesecond stage 504. In response to this scrolling, the first and secondmenu items 122, 124 “follow” the inertia of the scroll such that atleast a portion of the items is no longer displayed. Thus, the first andsecond menu items 122, 124 follow the user interface 120 in thedirection of the scroll so that a portion of the items is no longerdisplayed. However, at least a portion of one or more of the first andsecond menu items 122, 124 is continued to be displayed during thescroll. Thus, although the first and second menu items 122, 124 followthe inertia of the scroll the scroll is allowed to continue beneath themenu items so that at least a portion of the items continue to bedisplayed.

Once the scroll is completed, the first and second menu items 122, 124are again displayed in their entirety. For example, as the scroll slowsthe first and second menu items 122, 124 may be animated to return toview in a manner that follows the scroll of the user interface 120. Avariety of other examples are also contemplated without departing fromthe spirit and scope thereof

Example Procedures

The following discussion describes user interface techniques that may beimplemented utilizing the previously described systems and devices.Aspects of each of the procedures may be implemented in hardware,firmware, software, or a combination thereof. The procedures are shownas a set of blocks that specify operations performed by one or moredevices and are not necessarily limited to the orders shown forperforming the operations by the respective blocks. In portions of thefollowing discussion, reference will be made to the environment 100 andsystems 200-500 of FIGS. 1-5, respectively.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which content has different amount of display richnesswhen displayed with different levels of a hierarchical menu. Content isdisplayed by a computing device in conjunction with a first level of ahierarchical menu in a user interface on a display device of thecomputing device (block 602). As shown in the first stage 402 of FIG. 4,for instance, the first and second menu items 122, 124 are displayed inconjunction with content 126 on the display device 110. The first andsecond menu items correspond to a first level (e.g., a root level) ofthe hierarchical menu and represent a primary action and a control tonavigate to another level of the hierarchical menu.

Responsive to receipt of an input to navigate to a second level of thehierarchical menu that is a sublevel of the first level, the secondlevel is displayed in conjunction with the content on the displaydevice, the content having a reduced display richness when displayed inconjunction with the second level than when displayed in conjunctionwith the first level (block 604). Continuing with the previous example,the second menu item “more” of the first stage 402 is selected tonavigate to the second level of the hierarchical menu. As shown in thesecond stage 404, the content 126 is displayed to have a reduced displayrichness (darker in this example), which indicates “where” a currentlydisplayed level of the hierarchy “fits in” to the hierarchy as a whole.For instance, in the system 400 of FIG. 4 successively darker displaysof the content 126 indicate lower levels of the hierarchy. A variety ofother examples are also contemplated.

Example Device

FIG. 7 illustrates various components of an example device 700 that canbe implemented in various embodiments as any type of a mobile device toimplement embodiments of devices, features, and systems for mobilecommunications. For example, device 700 can be implemented as any of themobile communications devices 102 described with reference to respectiveFIGS. 1-5. Device 700 can also be implemented to access a network-basedservice, such as a social network service as previously described.

Device 700 includes input 702 that may include Internet Protocol (IP)inputs as well as other input devices, such as the keyboard 112 ofFIG. 1. Device 700 further includes communication interface 704 that canbe implemented as any one or more of a wireless interface, any type ofnetwork interface, and as any other type of communication interface. Anetwork interface provides a connection between device 700 and acommunication network by which other electronic and computing devicescan communicate data with device 700. A wireless interface enablesdevice 700 to operate as a mobile device for wireless communications.

Device 700 also includes one or more processors 706 (e.g., any ofmicroprocessors, controllers, and the like) which process variouscomputer-executable instructions to control the operation of device 700and to communicate with other electronic devices. Device 700 can beimplemented with computer-readable media 708, such as one or more memorycomponents, examples of which include random access memory (RAM) andnon-volatile memory (e.g., any one or more of a read-only memory (ROM),flash memory, EPROM, EEPROM, etc.).

Computer-readable media 708 provides data storage to store content anddata 710, as well as device applications and any other types ofinformation and/or data related to operational aspects of device 700.For example, an operating system 712 can be maintained as a computerapplication with the computer-readable media 708 and executed onprocessor 706. Device applications can also include a communicationmanager module 714 (which may be used to provide telephonicfunctionality) and a media manager 716.

Device 700 also includes an audio and/or video output 718 that providesaudio and/or video data to an audio rendering and/or display system 720.The audio rendering and/or display system 720 can be implemented asintegrated component(s) of the example device 700, and can include anycomponents that process, display, and/or otherwise render audio, video,and image data. Device 700 can also be implemented to provide a usertactile feedback, such as vibrate and haptics.

Generally, the blocks may be representative of modules that areconfigured to provide represented functionality. Further, any of thefunctions described herein can be implemented using software, firmware(e.g., fixed logic circuitry), manual processing, or a combination ofthese implementations. The terms “module,” “functionality,” and “logic”as used herein generally represent software, firmware, hardware or acombination thereof In the case of a software implementation, themodule, functionality, or logic represents program code that performsspecified tasks when executed on a processor (e.g., CPU or CPUs). Theprogram code can be stored in one or more computer readable memorydevices. The features of the techniques described above areplatform-independent, meaning that the techniques may be implemented ona variety of commercial computing platforms having a variety ofprocessors.

CONCLUSION

Although the invention has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarilylimited to the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specificfeatures and acts are disclosed as example forms of implementing theclaimed invention.

1. A method implemented by a computing device, the method comprising:displaying content in conjunction with a first level of a hierarchicalmenu in a user interface on a display device of the computing device;and responsive to receipt of an input to navigate to a second level ofthe hierarchical menu that is a sublevel of the first level, displayingthe second level in conjunction with the content on the display device,the content having a reduced display richness when displayed inconjunction with the second level than when displayed in conjunctionwith the first level.
 2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein thereduced display richness involves desaturation of the content.
 3. Amethod as described in claim 1, wherein the reduced display richnessinvolves darkening the content.
 4. A method as described in claim 1,wherein one or more portions of the hierarchical menu of the userinterface represent actions that involve the content.
 5. A method asdescribed in claim 1, wherein the display of the second level of theuser interface does not have the reduced display richness.
 6. A methodas described in claim 1, wherein the computing device is configured as amobile communications device having telephone functionality and one ormore of the hierarchical levels include representations of contacts. 7.A method as described in claim 1, wherein the computing device isconfigured to include an image capture device and the content is animage that was captured using the image capture device.
 8. A method asdescribed in claim 1, wherein the first level of the hierarchical menuand the second level of the hierarchical menu are displayed as anoverlay over the content.
 9. A method as described in claim 1, whereinthe user interface does not include a toolbar.
 10. A method as describedin claim 1, further comprising responsive to receipt of an input tonavigate to a third level of the hierarchical menu that is a sublevel ofthe second level, displaying the third level in the user interface onthe display device to have a reduced display richness in comparison tothe display of the second level.
 11. A method as described in claim 1,wherein: the first level of the hierarchical menu includes a first menuitem to initiate a first action and a second menu item that isselectable to cause the input to navigate to the second level of thehierarchical menu; and the second menu item is selectable when thesecond level of the hierarchical structure is displayed to navigate backto the first level of the hierarchical structure.
 12. One or morecomputer-readable storage media comprising instructions that areexecutable by a mobile communications device to cause output of a userinterface on a touchscreen of the mobile communications device, the userinterface having a hierarchical structure in which a root level of thehierarchical structure includes a first menu item that is selectable viathe touchscreen to initiate a primary action and a second menu item thatis selectable to cause display of a sublevel of the hierarchicalstructure that includes a plurality of menu items, one or more of whichare selectable to initiate a respective action and at least one of whichis selectable to cause display of another sublevel of the hierarchicalstructure.
 13. One or more computer-readable media as described in claim12, wherein the root level of the hierarchical structure only containsthe first and second portions.
 14. One or more computer-readable mediaas described in claim 12, wherein: the hierarchical structure is a menuthat is displayed in conjunction with content; and the content has areduced display richness when displayed in conjunction with the sublevel of the hierarchical structure than when displayed in conjunctionwith the root level.
 15. One or more computer-readable media asdescribed in claim 12, wherein: the user interface is scrollable via agesture received via the touchscreen when displaying the root level ofthe hierarchical structure; and the user interface is configured to notdisplay at least a portion of the first and second menu items when theuser interface is scrolling.
 16. One or more computer-readable media asdescribed in claim 12, wherein the user interface is configured todisplay an animation when the second menu item is selected that gives anappearance that the plurality of menu items of the sublevel expandoutwards radially from the display of the second menu item.
 17. One ormore computer-readable media as described in claim 12, wherein thesecond menu item is selectable when the sublevel of the hierarchicalstructure is displayed to navigate back to the root level of thehierarchical structure.
 18. A mobile communications device comprising: atouchscreen; a processor; and memory configured to maintain an operatingsystem that is executable on the processor to display a user interfaceon the touchscreen that is scrollable via a gesture received via thetouchscreen, the user interface is configured for display on thetouchscreen to include one or more menu items when the user interface isnot scrolled and configured to not display at least a portion of the oneor more menu items when the user interface is scrolled.
 19. A mobilecommunications device as described in claim 18, wherein the userinterface is configured to not display at least a portion of the one ormore menu items when the user interface is scrolled through output of ananimation in which the one or more menu items appear to follow inertiaof the scrolling of content in the user interface that is displayedunder the one or more menu items.
 20. A mobile communications device asdescribed in claim 18, wherein: the at least a portion of the one ormore menu items are also displayed in the user interface when the userinterface is not scrolled; and the user interface is configured todisplay a portion of the one or more menu items when the user interfaceis scrolled that is also displayed when the user interface is notscrolled;